Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows

永恒沉睡（Sopor Aeternus and the Ensemble of Shadows），常簡稱作Sopor Aeternus、Sopor或SA，是德國的一支暗潮與哥特風格的樂隊。樂隊的固定成員僅有Anna-Varney Cantodea一人。Sopor Æternus為拉丁語，意為永恒沉睡或死亡。成立于1989年。
 
永恒沉睡起源于Anna-Varney與Holger相逢于德國的一個哥特俱樂部。最初兩人沒有錢購買樂器，只能在頭腦中創(chuàng)作，盡管如此，他們還是創(chuàng)作了相當多的作品，并在1992年發(fā)行了樣品唱片。后來Holger離開了樂隊。而后廠牌Apocalyptic Visions為永恒沉睡發(fā)行了首張錄音室唱片。Sopor Aeternus的的作品里面使用大量的銅管，木管樂器，尤其是笛子等帶有強烈宗教色彩的配樂，以及各種吉他，合成器之類，內容多涉及死亡，自殺，悲苦，絕望，孤獨，變性等題材。
 
Sopor Aeternus & the Ensemble of Shadows (Latin: sopor æternus &eternal sleep&; often referred to or stylized as Sopor Aeternus or Sopor) is a darkwave musical project based in Frankfurt, founded in 1989 by Anna-Varney Cantodea. Since the project's beginnings, Anna-Varney's work has garnered a cult following, notorious for its extremely personalized, melancholic and pessimistic nature, drawing on a number of different musical and visual styles.
 
Born male, Cantodea prefers to be defined as a woman. She has never undergone surgery to change sex and does not intend to. Cantodea's pseudonym is derived from several sources. Firstly, the common name Anna, and secondly the Latin word cantodea, a composed neologism meaning &I sing, goddess&. (As a side note, the Latin term for &female singer& is cantor deæ.) She had been using the stage name &Varney& prior to 1997, that name taken from the Victorian Gothic horror story Varney, the Vampire; or the Feast of Blood.
 
Reportedly, Cantodea suffered beatings at the hands of her parents, and by peers in school. At the age of six, she had an out-of-body experience while sedated during a tonsillectomy.
 
Cantodea maintains a series of attention seeking behaviors to portray a persona that is voluntarily isolated, and too complicated to understand. She has stated that she does not perform live &in front of humans.& Despite this, she currently seems to be acquainted with the pagan and occult author Raven Digitalis, who is one of the &managers& of the Official Sopor Aeternus MySpace profile. She has an affinity for the author Edgar Allan Poe, adapting his poems to music on several occasions; she is also a supporter of several activist movements, including animal rights, pro-euthanasia, LGBT rights, vegan and vegetarian efforts. Cantodea is a very spiritual person, with devotion placed on the Roman deity Saturn. She combined Saturn's astrological symbol with that of Jupiter's to create the symbol of Jusa, an icon that reflects her spirituality and has become an insignia for herself and her music.
 
(wiki)
 
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by Murrday Fisher
 
1989 marks the founding of that deepest of dark bands, Sopor Aeternus (Eternal Sleep, or Sleep of Death). It began when the two musicians known as Varney and Holger met in a Frankfurt, Germany goth club. With no money to buy instruments, they had to compose their music completely in their heads. Nevertheless, they released a triad of lyrically intense yet technically flawed demo cassettes (Es Reiten Die Toten so Schnell, Rufus, and 'Till Time and Times Are Done) in 1992. After that, Holger left the band and the newly formed label Apocalyptic Visions developed an interest in Varney's music. In 1994, a debut CD with the extensive title Ich Tote Mich Jedesmal Aufs Neue, Doch Bin Ich Unsterblich Und Erstehe Wieder Auf In Einer Vision des Untergangs, or Ich Tote Mich... for short, was released as a limited edition. Songs like &Tanz der Grausamkeit& and &Do You Know My Name& were quickly discovered and became underground cult hits, taking the album into two re-releases.
 
Continuing as the sole human performer in Sopor Aeternus, Varney also credits the Ensemble of Shadows for her inspirations. These are spirits, beings who she says she receives the musical compositions from. She also works through depression with the aid of her music, as can be heard on the demos, produced at a time when she was gravely ill and at risk of losing her eyesight. She describes her subsequent works as &introverted exhibitionism.& They are also expressions of extreme, intense pain.
 
Varney's second album, Todeswunsch ­ Sous le Soleil de Saturne (&Deathwish ­ Under the Sun of Saturn&) a 1995 release, was a curious combination. While musically it seems perhaps a bit gentler and less depressive, its lyrics were so painfully evocative that she said she found herself weeping while recording some of the songs. The theme? &Suicide, sweet suicide.&
 
The Ensemble of Shadows dissuaded Varney from committing suicide, and in 1997, as she dealt with issues of her transexuality, she expanded her name to Anna-Varney. She has expressed in interviews the feeling that her album Inexperienced Spiral Traveller, from 1997, is her &worst& release, despite its sales success. Voyager ­ the Jugglers of Jusa followed in 1998. The song &Feralia Genitalia ­ Arrival of the Jugglers& shows a gender operation theme. Yet perhaps the most unusual song is a cover version of Kraftwerk's &Das Modell& which she translates into Latin and plays on a baroque harpsichord.
 
1999 brought the release of Dead Lover's Sarabande (Face One). It is steeped in the pain of inevitable loss and death. Dedicated &to 1334,& it commemorates the suicide of former Christian Death member Rozz Williams on April 1, 1998. Anna-Varney and he had developed a friendship through letter writing and had thought about a collaboration, which sadly, was never to be. As is characteristic of her deliberately mysterious approach, she steadfastly declines to explain the lyrics of this slow, grieving, dark production. Then, in March 2000, came the companion volume, Dead Lover's Sarabande (Face Two), with more of Anna-Varney's catacomb deep, stygian intensity.